Today's Wiki-est, Amazonian GoogliesAcross1. Z3 maker : BMW
The Z3 is a relatively low-cost roadster that was made by BMW from 1995 to 2002. I am not really into cars, but I do like the look of the Z3. I rented one for a few days in Munich years ago, in the middle of a freezing and snowy winter. It was a convertible model, so it was cold and noisy. I didn’t care, I still enjoyed driving it …

4. Onetime N.F.L. star nicknamed Joe Willie : NAMATH
The legendary quarterback Joe Namath played most of his professional football games with the New York Jets. Namath had played college football with the University of Alabama but left school without finishing his degree, to play professionally. Many years later he enrolled in Alabama's External Degree program, and graduated with a BA in December 2007, at 64 years of age. Well done, Joe!

10. Challenge in "Legally Blonde," for short : LSAT
Law School Admission Test (LSAT)

“LEGALLY blonde” is a 2001 comedy film starring Reese Witherspoon as a girlish sorority president who heads to Harvard to earn a law degree. “LEGALLY blonde” was successful enough to warrant two sequels as well as a spin-off musical that is still playing in London’s West End.

15. San ___, Argentina : ISIDRO
San Isidro is an affluent municipality in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Among San Isidro’s many claims to fame is that it is known as “the National Capital of Rugby” for the country.

16. D-Day objective : ST LO
Saint-Lô is a town in Normandy that was occupied by Germany in 1940. Saint-Lo stood at a strategic crossroads and so there was intense fighting there during the Normandy invasion of 1944. After a prolonged bombardment, very little of the town was left standing.

17. Distance at St. Andrews golf course? : SCOTLAND YARD(AGE)
London’s Metropolitan Police Service was originally headquartered at 4 Whitehall Place, and the rear entrance to the building was in a street called Great Scotland Yard. As the public entrance to the headquarters became that rear entrance, the headquarters and the force itself became known as “Scotland Yard”. The current headquarters is nowhere near that first building, and hasn’t been so since 1890, and the new facility is called New Scotland Yard.

There’s an urban myth that the standard number of holes on a golf course is 18 because it takes 18 shots to polish off a fifth of scotch whisky. However, the truth is that the standard number of holes in the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland happened to settle down over time at 18, and that standard was adopted all around the world.

20. Org. of which 18 U.S. presidents have been members : BSA
As every little boy (of my era) knows, the Scouting movement was founded by Lord Baden Powell, in 1907. The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) soon followed, in 1910.

21. Hindu life lesson : SUTRA
The word "sutra" is used in Hinduism for a learned text, one usually meant to be studied by students.

22. Base figs. : GIS
The initials "G.I." stand for "Government Issue" and not "General Infantry" as is often believed. GI was first used in the military to denote equipment made from Galvanized Iron and during WWI, incoming German shells were nicknamed "GI cans". Soon after, the term GI came to be associated with "Government Issue" and eventually became an adjective to describe anything associated with the Army.

23. Cost of mail from Manhattan? : NEW YORK POST(AGE)
The “New York Post” is a daily newspaper that has been around since 1801, when it was established by Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. In the 19th century, the paper was known as the “New York Evening Post”, and was respected broadsheet. Rupert Murdoch took over in 1993 and turned it into the tabloid rag that it is today.

27. Statue in the Parthenon : ATHENA
The Athena Parthenos (“Athena the Virgin” in English) was a massive statue of the goddess Athena made from gold, silver and ivory, which stood in the Parthenon in Athens. It was created by the sculptor Phidias around 447 BC. About 150 years later, the gold was stripped from the statue to pay troops. It was finally removed by the Romans in the 5th century AD. There is a replica of Athena in the city of Nashville, Tennessee that stands over 40 feet tall.

29. "___ Nature, red in tooth and claw ...": Tennyson : THO’
“Tho’ Nature, red in tooth and claw” is a line from the love poem “In Memoriam A.H.H” by English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Tennyson wrote the poem for his friend Arthur Henry Hallam, who died unexpectedly in 1833. The poem itself is of epic length, and was written over 17 years. The lines most quoted are:

I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

30. Arcturus, e.g., spectrally : K STAR
Stars are usually classified based on the color of the light that they emit. These classifications are, from hottest to coolest, O, B, A, F, G, K and M. One way to remember the order of these letters is to use the mnemonic “Oh, be a fine girl, kiss me”. The colors of these stars range from blue (class O) to red (class M). Our sun is class G, a yellow star, but I think we all know that …

Arcturus is a star in the northern celestial hemisphere. It is the fourth brightest star in the sky, after Sirius, Canopus and Alpha Centauri. The name “Arcturus” comes from the Greek for “Guardian of the Bear”, as is lies in a constellation that is close to the Greater and Lesser Bears (Ursa Major and Ursa Minor).

34. Places docs wear smocks : ERS
Emergency Rooms (ERs)

38. White House fiscal grp. : OMB
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the successor to the Bureau of the Budget, formed in 1970 during the Nixon administration. The main task of the OMB is to prepare the budget for the federal government, and the Director of the OMB is a member of the Cabinet.

40. Stuffed animal option : KOALA
The koala really does look like a little bear, but it's not even closely related. The koala is an arboreal marsupial and a herbivore, native to the east and south coasts of Australia. Koalas aren’t primates, and are one of the few mammals other than primates who have fingerprints. In fact, it can be very difficult to tell human fingerprints from koala fingerprints, even under an electron microscope.

41. "The Beverly Hillbillies" dad : JED
The actor Buddy Ebsen is best known for playing Jed Clampett in television’s “The Beverly Hillbillies”. Ebsen had been cast in the role of the Tin Man in the 1939 movie “The Wizard of Oz”, but he developed an allergy to the aluminium dust that was used in the makeup. He ended up in hospital and had to walk away from the part. Ebsen blamed “The Wizard of Oz” on persistent problems that he had with his lungs in subsequent years. But Ebsen lived 16 years longer that any of the other major cast members of the film, so maybe he got the last laugh!

47. One on a Facebook News Feed : FRIEND
“Friending” is the act of sending someone a friend request on Facebook. Once the request has been accepted, the pair are Facebook friends. The arrangement can be canceled in the process of “unfriending”. The verb “unfriend” was named as 2009’s Word of the Year by the New Oxford American Dictionary.

49. First-aid supply for Springsteen? : E STREET BAND(AGE)
The E Street Band is the backing group for Bruce Springsteen. The band came together in 1972 but didn't take a formal name until two years later. The keyboard player in the original line up was David Sancious, and his mother allowed the group to rehearse at her home. That home was on E Street in Belmar, New Jersey, and that's where the band got their name.

53. Morsel : ORT
Orts are small scraps of food left after a meal. “Ort” comes from Middle English, and originally described scraps left by animals.

55. Aunt in "Bambi" : ENA
Ena is Bambi's aunt in the 1942 Disney film “Bambi”. The movie is based on the novel "Bambi, A Life in the Woods" written by Austrian author Felix Salten and first published in 1923.

62. Actor Martin of 1960s-'70s TV : MILNER
Martin Milner is a former actor who is best known for playing lead roles on the TV shows “Route 66” and “Adam-12”. Milner is enjoying his retirement in California, as the owner of a productive walnut farm.

63. "___, non verba" (Latin proverb) : RES
The Latin phrase “res, non verba” is usually translated as “actions speak louder than words”, or more literally as “deeds, not words”.

64. Vase handle : ANSA
Ansa is the Latin word for handle. The term is also used to describe anatomical structures that are shaped like a handle, forming a loop or an arc.

65. Looks bad? : SNEERS
I think that should be “looks badly”, but I suppose given that the clue has a question mark we can ignore grammar …

66. Forerunner of Bach? : PDQ
P.D.Q. Bach is an alter ego used by musical satirist Peter Schickele. Schickele creates works that he bills as compositions written by P.D.Q. Bach, the “only forgotten son” of Johann Sebastien Bach.

Down1. Shot from a certain gun : BBS
A BB gun is an air pistol or rifle that shoots birdshot known as BBs. Birdshot comes in a number of different sizes, from size 9 (0.080" in diameter) to size FF (.23"). 0.180" diameter birdshot is size BB, which gives the airgun its name.

2. Source of the line "Something wicked this way comes" : MACBETH
"Something wicked this way comes" is a line spoken by one of the witches in Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”.

By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
Open, locks,
Whoever knocks.

3. Elite group : WHO'S WHO
Several publications use the phrase “Who’s Who” in the title. The oldest and best known is the British reference “Who’s Who” that has been listing prominent British people since 1849. There is a sister publication called “Who Was Who” that lists prominent people who have died since 1897.

4. Zip : NIL
The use of the words "zip" and “zippo” to mean "nothing" dates back to the early 1900s when it was student slang for being graded zero on a test.

6. Capital whose main street is Nezavisimosti : MINSK
Minsk is the capital of Belarus, formerly known as the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.

7. Tally : ADD UP
Back in the mid-1600s, a “tally” was a stick marked with notches that tracked how much one owed or paid. The term came from the Latin “talea” meaning “stick, rod”.

8. "___ Remember" : TRY TO
“Try to Remember” is a song from the 1960 musical “The Fantasticks”. The song was first performed on stage by Jerry Orbach, the actor who played Detective Lennie Briscoe in television’s “Law & Order”. Gladys Knight & the Pips had really big hit with the song in 1975 when they combined it beautifully with their version of “The Way We Were”.

10. Trip inits. : LSD
LSD (colloquially known as “acid”) is short for lysergic acid diethylamide. A Swiss chemist called Albert Hofmann first synthesized LSD in 1938 in a research project looking for medically efficacious ergot alkaloids. It wasn't until some five years later when Hofmann ingested some of the drug accidentally that its psychedelic properties were discovered. Trippy, man ...

12. Locale of a 1956 fight for independence : ALGIERS
The Algerian War was a decolonization war fought by Algerian independence movements against the ruling French from 1954 to 1962. One significant conflict in the war was the Battle of Algiers that started in September 1956 with the bombing of the offices of Air France.

18. Diggs of "Rent" : TAYE
Taye Diggs is an actor most associated with the Broadway show “Rent”, in which he played the nasty landlord Benny. He then co-starred on the television show “Private Practice”. Diggs given name is “Scott”, and the nickname “Taye” comes from saying the given name as “Scottay”.

24. Like a private peeling potatoes : ON KP
KP is a US military slang term, and stands for either "kitchen police" or "kitchen patrol".

26. Pulitzer winner James : AGEE
James Agee was a noted American film critic and screenwriter. Agee wrote an autobiographical novel "A Death in the Family" that won him his Pulitzer in 1958, albeit posthumously. He was also one of the screenwriters for the 1951 classic movie “The African Queen”.

31. William Shatner's sci-fi drug : TEK
The “Tekwar” series of science-fiction novels was co-authored by Ron Goulart and the actor William Shatner, although it’s only Shatner’s name that appears on the book covers. The stories center around the microchip “drug” called “tek” which dominates the Tekwar universe.

32. Year abroad : ANO
In Spanish, a year (año) starts in January (enero) and ends in December (diciembre).

35. Aid in a scam, e.g. : ABET
The word "abet" comes into English from the Old French "abeter" meaning "to bait" or "to harass with dogs" (it literally means "to make bite"). This sense of encouraging something bad to happen morphed into our modern usage of "abet" meaning to aid or encourage someone in a crime.

36. ___ Romeo : ALFA
The “Alfa” in Alfa Romeo is actually an acronym, standing for Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili ("Lombard Automobile Factory, Public Company"). ALFA was an enterprise founded in 1909 and which was taken over by Nicola Romeo in 1915. In 1920 the company name was changed to Alfa Romeo.

37. Only U.S. senator with a unit of measure named after him : GARN
Jake Garn served as a US Senator for the state of Utah from 1974 to 1993. Garn also served as a pilot in the US Navy, and later with the Utah Air National Guard. While in the US Senate, he was a member of the appropriations subcommittee that dealt with NASA. In that capacity, Garn asked for and was given permission to fly on the Space Shuttle as a payload specialist. One of his roles on the mission was to participate in medical experiments on space motion sickness. He was so ill during the flight that NASA made the unit of “one garn” the highest possible level of space sickness that could be experienced by an astronaut.

38. Noted Ohio conservatory : OBERLIN
The Oberlin Conservatory of Music is the oldest continuously operating conservatory in the whole country. It was founded in 1865 in cooperation with Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio.

41. Dada pioneer : JEAN ARP
Hans Arp was a French artist renowned for his work with torn and pasted paper, although that wasn't the only medium he used. Arp was the son of a French mother and German father and spoke both languages fluently. When he was speaking German he gave his name as Hans Arp, but when speaking French he called himself Jean Arp. Both "Hans" and "Jean" translate into English as "John". In WWI Arp moved to Switzerland to avoid being called up to fight, taking advantage of Swiss neutrality. Eventually he was told to report to the German Consulate and fill out paperwork for the draft. In order to get out of fighting, Arp messed up the paperwork by writing the date in every blank space on the forms. Then he took off all of his clothes and walked with his papers over to the officials in charge. He was sent home …

Dadaism thrived during and just after WWI, and was an anti-war, anti-bourgeois and anti-art culture. The movement began in Zurich, Switzerland started by a group of artists and writers who met to discuss art and put on performances in the Cabaret Voltaire, frequently expressing disgust at the war that was raging across Europe.

43. Onetime White House inits. : DDE
President Eisenhower was born in Denison, Texas and given the name David Dwight Eisenhower, but by the time he made it to the White House he was going by the name Dwight D. Eisenhower. Growing up, his family called him Dwight, and when "Ike" enrolled in West Point he himself reversed the order of his given names.

50. In conclusion, in Cannes : ENFIN
Cannes is a city on the French Riviera, noted as host of the Cannes Film Festival. The idea of the annual film festival was adopted by the city just before WWII. However, the festival had to wait for the end of the war for its launch in 1946.

51. Decorative fabric : TOILE
Toile fabric can be used as upholstery, or as a wallpaper, or even us a fabric for clothing.

52. Designer Geoffrey : BEENE
Geoffrey Beene was an American fashion designer. He had an impressive list of clients that included First Ladies Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon and Nancy Reagan.

57. One of two possibilities to Paul Revere : SEA
“One if by land, and two if by sea” is the famous signal code used by Paul Revere to warn the people of Charlestown when the British army was approaching. The words “one if by land, and two if by sea”, are immortalized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride”.

59. "___ Poetica" : ARS
The full name of Horace's work is "Ars Poetica, Epistula ad Pisones" (The Art of Poetry, Letters to Piso). The work describes the technical aspects of poetry in Ancient Rome, and the term "ars poetica" has come to mean the poetry of that period.

60. Abbr. after some professionals' names : ESQ
The title "esquire" is of British origin and is used differently today depending on whether one is in the US or the UK. Here in America the term is usually reserved for those practicing the law (both male and female). In the UK, "esquire" is a term of gentle respect reserved for a male who has no other title that one can use. So a mere commoner like me might receive a letter from the bank say, addressed to W. E. Butler Esq.

I am delighted that you stumbled across the blog. I hope you come back and visit again soon.

I also used to seek out the International Herald Tribune when traveling, and a big reason was to get hold of the crossword. In fact, the IHT is my favorite US newspaper. It seems to give you everything you want to read, without the padding.

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About This Blog

This is the simplest of blogs.

I do the New York Times puzzle online every evening, the night before it is published in the paper. Then, I "Google & Wiki" the references that puzzle me, or that I find of interest. I post my findings, along with the solution, as soon as I am done, usually well before the newsprint version becomes available.

About Me

The name's William Ernest Butler, but please call me Bill. I grew up in Ireland, but now live out here in the San Francisco Bay Area. I am retired, from technology businesses that took our family all over the world.

Crosswords and My Dad

I worked on my first crossword puzzle when I was about 6-years-old, sitting on my Dad's knee. He let me "help" him with his puzzle almost every day as I was growing up. Over the years, Dad passed on to me his addiction to crosswords. Now in my early 50s, I work on my Irish Times and New York Times puzzles every day. I'm no longer sitting on my Dad's knee, but I feel that he is there with me, looking over my shoulder.

This blog is dedicated to my Dad, who passed away at the beginning of this month.